Month: August 2016

Bearded Man

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Tonight I’m wrecked by a bearded man that I don’t know.

There is this old-ish guy that comes to the park across from our house every once in a while and sings his heart out in the shelter. I bet the acoustics are really good in there. He has a long white beard, and he wore a cut-off shirt.

Today was the third time I’d seen/heard him, and I thought it was the radio at first because the sound was so crisp, but it wasn’t! It was this guy!

I admire this stranger. He didn’t care that people Continue reading “Bearded Man” →

Calling All Saints

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My husband and I watched the movie St. Vincent tonight.

I gave it four stars on Netflix, but only because it made me cry and I couldn’t handle the kid’s cuteness. The movie as a whole was just okay. It was pretty rough around the edges in some places, but there was one part that just moved me.

The movie is about a single mom and her son. They move into a new neighborhood, and

Continue reading “Calling All Saints” →

Parade Candy Motherlode

Published on by Amy Wass1 Comment

About a month ago, I went back to my hometown to visit the family. The city celebration was going on, so we went to the parade on Saturday morning.

I don’t know why, but I decided I would be as energetic as possible, waving at people walking in the parade and clapping for well-made floats. It seemed like the people in the parade enjoyed it more than usual because there was actual human interaction, and it almost always resulted in candy being thrown my way.

I’d never realized that people would be more likely to throw candy at me if I made them smile, even though it just seems like common sense.

After a little while, I decided to tweak my method. I decided I would Continue reading “Parade Candy Motherlode” →

I’m Becoming One of Those People

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I owe it to my little sister for rekindling my love for reading. She introduced me to a series that I’ve been zooming through. I recently started the last book, and saw a shiny seal on the cover that said “Author of The City of Ember – A major motion picture Fall 2008,” and thought, “What?! How did I not hear of this movie when it came out?! The books are really well done, so I thought surely the movie would at least be a little good.”

WRONG!

There was nothing good about that movie. Not. One. Thing.

When a book is Continue reading “I’m Becoming One of Those People” →

Weekend Adventures

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Holy smokes. Last weekend was so full!

My husband and I ran some errands Friday night to get ready for the rest of the weekend. It was our town’s annual celebration. The park near our house is where all of the festivities happen, so we don’t usually get much sleep since the beer garden and live music close down around 1am.

It poured Friday night, though, so we didn’t have to be up too late. Saturday morning was the co-ed softball tournament followed by the parade. I’ve figured out the best way to get the most candy at parades. It’s crazy how well it works.

I didn’t play softball in high school, but Continue reading “Weekend Adventures” →

Good Soil

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Our small group has been listening to podcasts by Andy Stanley for a few weeks, and last night’s was really good. The series is called Staying In Love, and Andy addresses why people seem to fall out of love after years of being in love and what couples can do to fight back against the decay of love in marriages.

We watched part 3 last night. It was about feelings and how important it is to be able to recognize what we feel because a lot of conflict arises as a result of what is going on inside of our own hearts rather than what our spouses are doing, and it’s easier to simply blame someone else for making us feel a certain way than it is to take responsibility for ourselves. Andy gave an illustration in which Mr & Mrs Mug had a conflict. When there was conflict or a “bump” blue beads fell out of Mr. Mug, and pink beads fell out of Mrs. Mug. They blamed each other saying, “If you didn’t do this or say that these beads wouldn’t have spilled out of me,” but the truth was the blue beads fell out of Mr. Mug because that’s what was inside of him. In the same way, if we have anger inside, anger will spill out when there is conflict.

One discussion question that really stuck out to me was this: Continue reading “Good Soil” →

Here We Are Now. Entertain Us.

Published on by Amy Wass2 Comments

I enjoyed reading as a kid, then somewhere around junior high or high school that enjoyment went away. Maybe it was being forced to read certain books for school, or maybe it was something I did. I don’t really know. As an adult I’ve discovered that I do still like reading, but getting a book in my hand is the hard part. If I can find a good book, I’ll read and read, but taking time to find a good book is something I don’t really like doing.

My younger sister and I started reading a series of books that she really likes. I’d never read them before, so she read to me while I did dishes or made supper. We finished book number one, and she got the second and third books from the library. I started the second book a couple days ago and finished today.

As I was reading yesterday, I thought, “It would be great if the Bible was Continue reading “Here We Are Now. Entertain Us.” →